Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent fiscal steps he has taken to support small businesses.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government's long-term economic plan is backing small businesses as they set up and grow. As part of this plan we are cutting taxes and reducing red tape to help businesses.
In particular, the employment allowance was introduced in April 2014, and allows businesses and charities throughout the UK to deduct up to £2,000 off their employer national insurance contributions (NICs) bill each year.
In addition, autumn statement 2013 announced the extension of the doubling of small business rate relief until April 2015, taking 350,000 small businesses out of business rates.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many businesses in Skipton and Ripon constituency will be issued with staging dates for automatic enrolment between 1 April 2014 and 1 April 2015.
Answered by Steve Webb
The information is not available in the format requested.
This is because staging data is often based on details such as the address of an employer's head office, or their admin hub. It therefore does not necessarily reflect where the workers are based e.g. an employer might have a head office in London but have staff based all over the country.
The Pensions Regulator publishes monthly the volume of employers that have registered that they have met their duties along with the volume of workers automatically enrolled. As at 31 March 2014, 10,817 employers have registered with The Pensions Regulator that they have met the duties and enrolled more than 3.24 million workers.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/automatic-enrolment-monthly-registration-report.pdf
The Pensions Regulator estimates that there will be in the range of 30,000-35,000 employers across the UK commencing their automatic enrolment duties from 1 April 2014 to 1 April 2015. This is an approximate range; several factors affect these numbers. For example, an employer may bring their staging date forward, an employer may cease trading, or an employer who has a number of affiliated employers in their group may choose to stage them all in the same period.
The Pensions Regulator has published a staging forecast which can be found at:
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/automatic-enrolment-employer-staging-forecast.pdf
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of businesses in Skipton and Ripon constituency have not yet met their staging date for automatic enrolment for workplace pensions.
Answered by Steve Webb
The information is not available in the format requested.
This is because staging data is often based on details such as the address of an employer's head office, or their admin hub. It therefore does not necessarily reflect where the workers are based e.g. an employer might have a head office in London but have staff based all over the country.
The Pensions Regulator publishes monthly the volume of employers that have registered that they have met their duties along with the volume of workers automatically enrolled. As at 31 March 2014, 10,817 employers have registered with The Pensions Regulator that they have met the duties and enrolled more than 3.24 million workers.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/automatic-enrolment-monthly-registration-report.pdf
The Pensions Regulator estimates that there will be in the range of 30,000-35,000 employers across the UK commencing their automatic enrolment duties from 1 April 2014 to 1 April 2015. This is an approximate range; several factors affect these numbers. For example, an employer may bring their staging date forward, an employer may cease trading, or an employer who has a number of affiliated employers in their group may choose to stage them all in the same period.
The Pensions Regulator has published a staging forecast which can be found at:
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/automatic-enrolment-employer-staging-forecast.pdf
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that the staging dates for automatic enrolment for workplace pensions are being effectively communicated to businesses in Skipton and Ripon constituency.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has responsibility for educating and enabling employers in order to maximise compliance. TPR is writing to employers 12 months and 1 month prior to their staging date to alert them to their new responsibilities.
Where an employer provides an email address to TPR they will also receive a series of emails informing them what stage they should be at and signposting guidance and tools that have been provided by the Regulator. This includes an interactive planning tool to assist employers in getting ready, a staging date tool to find out your staging date, and detailed guides. They have also established a customer support centre for employers to discuss any questions they may have.
An advertising campaign aimed at employers has also been used to raise awareness and guide employers to the regulator's website to help them in their preparations.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to tackle websites which charge for free Government services.
Answered by Nick Hurd
We take the issue of misleading websites very seriously. Most people encounter them though advertisements on search result pages, so we are working with Google to help them identify and remove those adverts. We have also made more money available to support the National Trading Standards Board to investigate this issue